Great Gatsby Scene Rewrite (Gatsby's POV)

I’m rewriting the scene starting around page at 63 where Gatsby comes to Nick’s house to talk to take him to lunch in New York but from Gatsby’s point of view.

 

            Okay, I need to go and talk to Nick. I need to get him to talk to Jordan. Jordan will help him understand all of this. I’ll just go over there and ask him to lunch before he talks to Jordan, yes, that’s what I’ll do. God, he has to say yes. What if he’s loyal to Tom and tells him? Oh God, everything for from the past 5 years is riding on this.

            It’s nine. I hope it’s not too early, what if he decides he doesn’t want to go to lunch? I finally get up the nerve to drive my car the few yards to his house. I look at myself in the mirror.

            “Come on, Gatsby, pull it together.” I honk the horn and within a few seconds Nick pulls open the door, he seems very eager to see me, good thing too.

“Good morning, old sport. You’re having lunch with me today and I thought we’d ride up together.” I say with a cool voice, hiding my anxiety. Everything I want is riding on this singular man, whose eyes seem to be looking past me and at my car.

“It’s pretty, isn’t it, old sport! Haven’t you ever seen it before?” I say showing it off. I’ll admit I’m trying to impress him, but what else am I to do? He needs to say yes.

We head off together towards New York, the car ride is...uncomfortable to say the least. I don’t know what to say to a man who is so important to my fate.  He needs to know who I am, that I’m a good guy, he can’t go around believing all those silly rumors those people spread about me.

            “Look here, old sport, what’s your opinion of me anyhow?” and immediately I regret it, what kind of a question is that? I’m tempted to take it back and tell him he doesn’t need to answer, but part of me wants to know what he has to say. Oh, God he has to say something good. My life depends upon him and he doesn’t even know!

 

The American Dream: on Permanent Holiday

www.huffingtonpost.com/tiziana-dearing/us-wealth-gap_b_1093582.html

I read Where Is the American Dream Today? from the Huffington Post. And my answer is; it's on permanent holiday. Okay, maybe not permanent, but definitely on holiday. There's a Green Day song called Holiday and part of it goes "This is our lives on holiday", and that's exactly how I feel about the American Dream.

According to the article the poverty rate in America is at an all time high (as if that was surprising). It spits out a bunch of data that just reminds us all how much life sucks a ton and that we really have no hope of ever getting out of this. In the recession in the early 90s it took 15 months for the job rate to get back to the rate before the recession, but people that say stuff and we believe it economists predict that it will take 60 months for the job rate to return back to normal this time. And by THAT time those same people say we could very well be in another recession. So really we should be panicking and going around murdering each other, but we can't, we have to keep going about our business, because no matter what it will all be okay, most of the time, unless you're ugly and have no friends (sorry, I'm going on a rant about mixed messages from the media here). Some people are doing something, though. Not murdering, but protesting. Occupy Wall Street is sending a message that all this isn't okay. The article mentions keeping the dream alive, but maybe it needs to die and then regenerate (Like the Doctor. Get it? Anyone? No? Fine.). Occupy is, in a way, trying to reshape the American Dream. The American Dream has gone on holiday but hopefully it'll come back refreshed, rejuvenated, and sporting a rocking tan.